Cooper City Development Snags

Sunshine Ranches residents won the first round on Thursday in their fight against Cooper City`s plans to build shopping centers and stores on the west side of Flamingo Road.

In the waning hours of a 12-hour public hearing, the Broward County Planning Council tentatively recommended rejection of four land use amendments, sought by Cooper City for commercial development on 67 acres. The amendments involve four tracts, currently designated as one-home-per-acre estates, recently annexed by Cooper City in the unincorporated Sunshine Ranches area.

The preliminary recommendations were made during the first of a series of public hearings to be held on 31 requests for changes on the county`s land use map. After the proposals are reviewed by the state, they will come back to the Planning Council in July for a final recommendation to the Broward County Commission. The commission will make the final determination in August.

The council looked at requests for 4,519 acres, of which 4,100 were in southwest Broward.

Seeking to round out its city with a balance of commercial development, Cooper City planners tried to assure Planning Council members their proposals would not intrude on the rural Sunshine Ranches community. The projects would be buffered by parks, walls or berms from the residents.

McClosky said the city would have no other requests for commercial properties along Flamingo Road, aside from the current requests. He said the city has rejected requests for other commercial uses in that area.

Council Planner Peter Ross recommended denials for all of the commercial projects along with a denial of a proposed change of 235 acres from estate to a three-homes-per-acre for the former Imagination Farms dairy land west of Flamingo Road and south of Griffin Road. That area also has been annexed by Cooper City.

The council decided to make no recommendation on the change for the former dairy.

Requests by Cooper City for 97.9 acres of commercial projects along Sheridan Street east of Palm Avenue fared better than those along Flamingo Road. The council recommended those proposals not be approved as presented, allowing planners and developers a chance to work out their differences.

Ross said agreements have been reached between the developers and the county to protect nearby wellfields and the city had agreed to make road improvements. He said plans still need to be worked out to provide a buffer to nearby residential subdivisions and planners wanted to see justification for increasing commercial property in that area.